Techland's Project Hell Officially Named Hellraid

Back in August of last year, we unveiled Dead Island developer Techland's newest project, Project Hell. Today, Techland posted a new blog entry, officially unveiling the game's title as Hellraid. Project Manager and Designer Marcin Kruczkiewicz (Kruq) calls the game a "first-person co-op slasher" set in a unique dark fantasy world. The combat system will require "precision and good timing when striking enemies and parrying their attacks," highlighted by copious amounts of blood. That being said, it's not all about melee attacks, as the game also features ranged weapons and magic.

Hellraid consists of two game modes: a single-player, story-driven campaign and four-person cooperative multiplayer against hordes of hellish monsters. It's the latter that is Techland's main focus, and despite the co-op nature, it'll actually feature a bit of competitive flair. Players will earn points by performing various actions, such as killing monsters or aiding a dying companion. Not only will there be leaderboards, but the best players will receive "special rewards." Lastly, Kruq discussed a feature of the game called the Game Master, which adds a bit of randomness and replayability to the game. The Game Master system randomly generates loot and enemy spawn locations, as well as online challenges. The latter essentially sounds like a dynamic quest system, which could make each game feel quite different.

Unfortunately, there's no trailer to show just yet, but hopefully we get one soon – Kruq does say more will be revealed in the coming weeks. It all sounds very promising so far, but I just hope the focus on the cooperative multiplayer aspect of the game doesn't negatively impact the single-player campaign. The screenshots and enemy models below sure do look sweet though! Hellraid is coming to PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360, but a release date is unknown.